Country China County seat Jimsar Town (吉木萨尔镇) Area 12,795 km² | Township-level divisions 4 towns
4 townships Time zone China Standard (UTC+8) Province Xinjiang | |
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Prefecture-level divisions Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture | ||
Jimsar County (Chinese: 吉木萨尔县; pinyin: Jímùsà'ěr Xiàn; Xiao'erjing: کِمُوسَاعَر ﺷِﯿًﺎ; Uyghur: جىمىسار ناھىيىسى, Җимисар Наһийиси, ULY: Jimisar Nahiyisi, UYY: Jimisar Nah̡iyisi?) is a county in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It contains an area of 8,149 km2. According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 130,000.
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Map of Jimsar, Changji, Xinjiang, China
Near the town of Jimsar are the ruins of the ancient city of Beiting (Chinese: 北庭; pinyin: Běitíng) or Tingzhou (Chinese: 庭州; pinyin: Tíngzhōu), the headquarters of the Beiting Protectorate in the 8th century. Later, as Beshbalik, it was one of the capitals of the Uyghur Khaganate and then the Kingdom of Qocho.
History
The name Beshbalik first appears in history in the description of the events of 713 in the Turkic Kul Tegin inscription. It was one of the largest of 5 towns in the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia. The Tibetans briefly held the city in 790. Established in 1902 as a county, it was known as Fuyuan (孚远) until 1952, when its name was changed to Jimsar.
The modern city Jimsar is located at 43°59'N, 89°4'East; it is a location of the Uyghur ancient southern capital Beshbalik or Beshbalyk (Turkic Head (or Main) Area (or Space, Section, Location), although in modern Turkish "Beşbalık (or "Beshbalyk") literally means "Five Fish", the closest approximation of "Beshbalyk" would be "Baş (Main, Top, Central, Head, etc.) Boluk (Area, Location) or Başboluk). It became the Uyghur main capital after a disastrous results of the Yenisei Kirghiz attack on the Uyghur northern capital Karabalgasun (Khanbalyk).
After the attack, a significant part of the Uyghur Khaganate population fled to the area of the present Jimsar County and Tarim Basin in general in 840, where they founded the Kingdom of Qocho. The Uyghurs submitted to Genghis Khan in 1207. Beshbalik consisted of five parts: an outer town, the northern gate of the outer town, the extended town of the west, the inner town and a small settlement within the inner town. At first, the city was the political center of the Uyghur Idiquit (monarch) and his Mongol queen, Altalun, daughter of Genghis Khan under the Mongol Empire in the first half of the 13th century. Alans were recruited into the Mongol forces with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" which was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers, Mongols, and Chinese soldiers stationed in the area of the former Kingdom of Qocho and in Besh Balikh the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih). Due to military struggles between the Chagatai Khanate and the Yuan Dynasty during the reign of Kublai Khan, the city was abandoned and lost its prosperity in the late 13th century. The History of Yuan records the name as both Wu-ch'eng 五城 (5 cities) and Bie-shi-ba-li 别失八里.
Jimsar city was established in the south of the ruins of Beshbalik.